San Diego awards CH2M HILL consulting contract to streamline utility operations

DENVER — The City of San Diego Public Utilities Department awarded a contract to CH2M HILL to provide optimization consulting services to streamline the city’s water and wastewater operations. The optimization program will provide a blend of operations, management, and engineering capabilities to increase operational efficiencies, reduce costs, and generate additional revenue.

Under the contract, CH2M HILL will conduct a comprehensive operational optimization study to review and evaluate San Diego’s water and wastewater facilities and operations to determine if improvements can be made in the areas of energy utilization, water production and distribution, chemical usage, data utilization, wastewater sludge processing and disposal, operator staffing, and warehouse practices and procedures. The study findings will be used to produce implementable recommendations.

San Diego’s water infrastructure system is one of the largest and most complex in the United States. Located in a semi-arid desert region with little rainfall, San Diego imports 90 percent of its water to meet the needs of 1.3 million people. The city maintains and operates more than 3,300 miles of water lines, 49 water pump stations, 130-plus pressure zones, and more than 260 million gallons of potable water storage capacity in a variety of standpipes, elevated tanks, and concrete and steel reservoirs.

“Optimizing utilities for more efficient operations requires management, engineering, finance, and operations and maintenance expertise,” said Scott Haskins, CH2M HILL director, Management and Strategic Consulting. “Leveraging experience gained from previous utility optimization programs, we look forward to delivering a fully integrated plan to help San Diego optimize its water and wastewater utilities and bring greater value to its customers.”